Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Entry Level Jobs?

With what used to be entry jobs now paying 30 to $47K a year who will be hiring today's kids?

When I finished my MS I was tickled to start at 12K a year.

As an 18 year old kid I ran off from MN to Idaho to start fighting fires for the summer at $3.75 per hour. My times have changed!

Yeah, but when I was a kid, gas was a quarter and you could buy a new car for under $2000. I remember Mom taking us kids to the newly opened McDonalds for a 10 cent burger. My 1st real job paid me $7500/yr. It's wasn't a get rich job but it was a living wage. 5 years later, I got a job that paid about $15k and I was in fat city for a while.

Inflation and cost of living.....

We didn't have 40 y/o illegals trying to work 50 hours a week to make a 'living wage' from MacDougals back in 1957.

It ain’t the kids fighting for a “living wage” it’s the 45 year old Mexicans that have turned a job at McDonald’s, a job that was entry level for a kid, into a career for a middle aged Mexican alien that has 5 kids to feed and DEMANDS that we change to accommodate them….and the liberals will. What’s being done at the southern border is criminal, it’s treason plain and simple and its tentacles stick to everything.

With that said….based upon the ridiculous price of everything I don’t think $15 out here is too much for a “minimum wage”. A 1br 1ba apartment around here starts at about $1700 and goes up fast. Most homes in town are over $500,000 and homes out here 10 miles outside of town start at $1mil. We bought our home 12 years ago and paid $400k but it’s now appraised for $1.2mil. I played a “hunch” when we found this and I was right but I can’t wait to sell this place! It served its purpose but if you sell around here you gotta get out of the area because everything is crazy expensive.

A couple of kids out of high school working full time for minimum wage could not realistically get a 3br apartment around here because availability on them is limited and in extreme demand thanks to the Mexicans with 5 kids and their government assistance….plus minimum wage….plus the husband is roofing or landscaping for under the table money. They can make the $2500 rent payment (not including power, phone, sewer) but the 3 18 year old American kids can’t. The American kid quits competing against the middle aged Mexican and decides to become a loser too. Illegal aliens impact EVERY aspect of our society and while they might have a positive contribution it doesn’t outweigh the negative effects on our society. Illegal immigration is destroying our country!

Last I checked my parents could work part time, year round while being able to afford full time college courses, newish cars, rent, food and vacations/enertainment. It wasn't because they were better skilled than my generation either... rather, that immigration is inflation with the scale being Human lives.

It's not the 80s anymore...

I was typing when you posted but ABSOLUTELY correct Sir!

Good post!

You trying to rub it in? 😀

I was 9 in 1980 but I sure thought they were good times. Mom always said that the 1950’s were a great time to grow up in this country. We were a country that was rightfully PROUD of our accomplishments. We were patriotic and we didn’t suffer criminals. Bad behavior wasn’t excused or accepted. Even in 1980 if a kid stepped out of line he was likely to get thumped by a teacher. Discipline was still valued.

Went into the Army in 1988 pulling in $630/month. Thought I was rich. Then I met a girl.

Spending 3 hours a day, Machine Tool Tech. for 2 school years would get ya an apprentice position in a machine shop at maybe 10 cents an hour above minimum wage. About 1972.

Yeah, us boomers were all born with a silver spoon in our mouth.

In 1972 a Chevrolet Chevelle 350SS is priced at $3400. You make $1.7 per hour. To get the same value you need to make $22 per hour to buy a V8 Mustang today within the same 1950 hours of work time. Otherwise known as 1 year of full time work. This of course is all besides the fact that food, housing, fuel, insurance, medical and all the other costs have gone up in the same amount during the same time period, so yes... you had it on easy mode compared to Gen X and it's only gotten worse with immigration and inflation for the later generations.


Shall we calculate the same for real estate from nineteen hundred and seventy two..?

The fed or states setting a minimum wage for non govt business it total BS. Let the market sort it out. Lots of minimum wage people will get a raise today. And their wage increase will drive up the cost of goods and services.
So, the net is the minimum wage people gain little or nothing, but the govt gets more tax revenue on higher wages.

First take home check for 40 hrs was 56 bucks in 73 so GFY.

Also, a higher minimum wage attracts more illegals.

Real estate has more to do with population per square mile, & it's availability among other things, not just inflation.. A totally different set of values.

Well actually you did have it better. That machine shop job you mentioned would have allowed you in a few years max to buy a house and live a middle class lifestyle. Also it probably came with company paid health insurance and a pension. That is something that most of those earning "10cents over minimum wage" today will never have opportunity to do as the cost of housing today is way disproportionate to todays salaries of many "middle class", blue collar jobs, especially when adding in the deductions for the health benefit employee share costs, 401k contributions etc etc. Hell as others mentioned a 1 bedroom apartment around here thats not in a ghetto starts at $1200/month AND thanks to all the people skipping payments during the Scamdemic most non ghetto landlords require that you gross 3x the monthly rent to even look at your application. Kinda hard to save for a house and/or retirement under those conditions!!

There is simply a point where most employers, can only raise salaries so high and limit employees required premium shares etc so much and still be able to competitively bid jobs, price product/service competitivly, etc to remain profitable. Certainly cannot raise them enough to keep up with the rampant inflation!!

I had one child, was in my 3rd year of marriage before I was making $100.00/week! memtb

Wally world here starts at 18 an hour.

Panda express 19 an hour.

Most fast food 15-16.

My wife is a medical receptionist but that is unfortunately 16 an hour.

My first job was 4.25 an hour on a farm, thought I was big time when I was making 6 an hour in '86.